Light Start – Twitter (all of it), iPhone on a string, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Trackmania

Twitter makes the internet do their collective nut. Again. 

Late last week, a report popped out of the States claiming that Twitter would be changing the way that your timeline would be working. Cue outrage, anger, predictions of complete Twitter failure, cats and dogs sleeping together, mass hysteria! Or a Twitter timeline that uses algorithms to appear more like Facebook, emphasising some information over others. The changes were supposed to land as soon as this week but Twitter head Jack Dorsey, following an outcry (because we’re not allowed to use the term ‘excrement explosion’), has said that these changes won’t be taking place in the near future. What he didn’t say is that the changes won’t be taking place at all (so they still might) and whether users will be able to opt out (so you might not be able to switch back to real-time Twitter, if the algorithmic changes become a thing).

Source: via The Verge 1, 2

 

We’re going to need an iPhone, a Centriphone and a snowboard. Now.

We’ve seen skiers and snowboarder toting GoPro cams or using drones to capture their downhill antics. Never before have we seen someone shooting video by swinging a smartphone around their heads at the end of a piece of string. In this case, it’s the iPhone 6, and rider Nicolas Vuignier managed to get his circular and sometimes nauseating (though extremely unique) footage without sacrificing his phone hardware. The rig used to capture the shots is a custom 3D-printed setup called the Centriphone which uses centrifugal force to keep the iPhone pointed in the right direction. From there, it’s up to the rider/photographer to not bail and completely toast the phone hardware. Which he didn’t.

Source: Nicolas Vuignier

A quick look at the Apocalypse during the Super Bowl

Time to test your concentration. What can you see in the immensely brief Super Bowl trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse? Besides the end of the world and a large, bald mutant, that is? Missile launches? The Hunger Games? Sansa Stark? Deadpool? Okay, maybe not Deadpool. Seriously though, Apocalypse is shaping up to be a worthy addition to the First Class/Days of Future Past entries. We’re not going to talk about the first trilogy, because as much as we like Patrick Stewart as Professor X, some of those should never have happened.

Source: X-Men: Apocalypse

Trackmania Turbo’s going to scratch that stunt itch on 25 March

There are simulations and there are plain old racing games. Then there’s Trackmania, the newest edition of which will be gracing screens and consoles on 25 March according to publisher Ubisoft. It’s an arcade racer in the purest sense of the word but Trackmania Turbo is also set to continue the series’ emphasis on player-built tracks. There will be 200 tracks available from the outset, with developer Nadeo pulling out all the stops to impress, but the highlight is really going to come in when players start flexing their creative and driving muscle. We’ve seen some things that you would not believe (like the Press Forward tracks) and there are going to be at least a few instances of insanely complicated road for players to experience soon. Like we said, 25 March is your target date for some Trackmania Turbo, on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Source: Trackmania (YouTube)